Improvement in clothes-pins



J'. H. MARSHALL.

CLOTHES-PIN. No.175.,478. Patented March 28,1876.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

JOSEPH H. MARSHALL, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN CLOTHES-PINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 175.478, dated March 23, 1876; application filed April 20, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH H. MARSHALL, of Grand Rapids, in the county of Kent and State of Michigan, have invented a new and Improved Spring Clothes-Pin; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and'exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of myinvention, and Fig. 2 a longitudinal section.

Similar letters of reference in the accompanying drawings denote the same parts.

This invention relates to that class of clothes-pin in which two pieces or jaws are employed actuated by a spring. These jaws are usually hinged together at or near the center, and forced apart at their upper ends by the spring, the opposite ends constituting the holding portion, this construction necessitating the employment of a hinge or pivot to hold the jaws in their proper relative positions;

My invention has for its object to provide for public use a spring clothes-pin, in which the spring shall hold the jaws together and prevent them from being displaced laterally and tothis end it consists in the peculiar construction of the jaws and spring, and their combination with each other, as I will now proceed to describe.

In the drawings, A A represent wooden pieces, having jaws B and tapering upper ends 0 like those in common use. The pieces A A are thickest at the point D on their proximate faces, where the piece A is provided with a transverse rounded recess, a, and the piece A with a corresponding rounded lug or proand constituting a fulcrum. E represents the spring, composed of a piece of wire of suitable stiffness bentso as to form two nearly circular portions, 8 6, parallel with each other, and "united at their ends, and a sufficient distance apart to inelose the pieces A A, as shown in Fig. 1. The ends of the spring E rest in transverse grooves cut in the outer sides of the pieces A'A, between the fulcrum and the jaws B, the tension of the spring holding the jaws together, while the curved sides of the spring extend back of the fulcrum, as shown, so that the metal composing the spring cannot come in contact with the fabrics held by thejaws, thereby avoiding any liability of staining said fabrics.

It will be seen that the parts A A are held closely together; and prevented from lateral displacement by thespring, while the rounded lug or fulcrum a. fitting in the recess a prevents any longitudinal displacement. The use of a separate hinge or rivet is therefore dispensed with, and the construction of the pin cheapened and simplified.

I claim as my invention-- The pieces A A, having the rounded recess -a and corresponding projection a, in combination with the spring E, all constructed, ararranged, and operating substantially as and for the purpose specified.

JOSEPH H. MARSHALL.

PETER O. VOORHIES.

jection, a, fittinginto the recess a, as shown, 

